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Review
. 2018 Aug 13;19(8):2382.
doi: 10.3390/ijms19082382.

Organic Bioelectronics: Materials and Biocompatibility

Krishna Feron  1 , Rebecca Lim  2 , Connor Sherwood  3   4 , Angela Keynes  5 , Alan Brichta  6 , Paul C Dastoor  7
Affiliations
Review

Organic Bioelectronics: Materials and Biocompatibility

Krishna Feron et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

Organic electronic materials have been considered for a wide-range of technological applications. More recently these organic (semi)conductors (encompassing both conducting and semi-conducting organic electronic materials) have received increasing attention as materials for bioelectronic applications. Biological tissues typically comprise soft, elastic, carbon-based macromolecules and polymers, and communication in these biological systems is usually mediated via mixed electronic and ionic conduction. In contrast to hard inorganic semiconductors, whose primary charge carriers are electrons and holes, organic (semi)conductors uniquely match the mechanical and conduction properties of biotic tissue. Here, we review the biocompatibility of organic electronic materials and their implementation in bioelectronic applications.

Keywords: biocompatibility; bioelectronics; drug delivery; nerve cell regeneration; neural interface; organic electronics.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Reprinted with permission from [34] under the terms of the CC BY license.
Figure 2
Figure 2
PEDOT:PSS bioelectronic 3D scaffold. (a) schematic; (b) a photograph of the 3D conducting polymer scaffold showing the gold (Au) coated glass slide (used to provide electrical contact with the scaffold) and the integration of the media perfusion tube within the plastic cuvette used to contain the media; (c) immunofluorescence images and illustrative diagram (centre); (d) scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. Reproduced with permission from [61]. Copyright 2017 by John Wiley and Sons.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Living electrode consists of a typical platinum microelectrode covered by two layers of hydrogels. The bottom layer (blue) consists of a non-degradable conductive hydrogel loaded with PEDOT and optimised for electrical properties. The top layer (pink) is a biodegradable hydrogel loaded with and optimised for neural cell growth. Once good cell adhesion/growth is achieved this layer dissolves. Reproduced with permission from [68]. Copyright 2017 by Materials Research Society.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Diagram depicting (a) experimental setup and device structure of a polymer artificial retina, (b) the part of the retina that is replaced by the artificial device and (c) mean neural firing rate as a function of light intensity with and without an organic semiconductor. Reproduced with permission from [13,14]. Copyright 2011 by Springer Nature.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Diagram of a planar ion pump device. The black arrow indicates ion flow from the reservoir to the target area. (a–c) show side views and (d) shows a top view of the encapsulated device. Reproduced with permission from [46]. Copyright 2009 by Springer Nature.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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